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[Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Maverick 2.0 GW/x

Aberrations

silver bullet card dedicated card versus aimed deck, strategy or other card which stops opponent strategyclock  limiting opponent time to react (in turns), by attacking opponent, for example having lethal damage in creatures gives 1 turn clock.hatebear  Silver bullet card which is a creaturecard advantage  drawing more cards then opponent, or exchange one of your card for more then one of opponents, or using same card from graveyard more then once.metagame  other decks which you will be facing against.consistency deck  deck which have smooth mana curve, along with cards with similar role or many tutors or card selection.mana curve  counting your cards mana cost and presenting on graph which will be hiperbolic to x axis  the aim for this deck is: y=23e^(-x/1.596), where y is number of cards in deck and x is the CMC including lands (need to be proven).card quality  factor in building deck, every time you draw a card you count your card quality: which is cards you want to draw / all cards, for example every fetchland gives you better card quality every use. In late game you dont want to draw more lands.

Introduction

Maverick is one of the most agile mid-range deck in the format. Its agility came from tutors and silver bullet cards which can handle most of situations faced in competitive play. Opposite to most constructions its focused on creatures not spells. It is proactive approach and gives decent clock which force opponent to act and change line of play.
Maverick strategy can attack on many diverse angles: hatebears, resources, card advantage, protected aggression. this mean it can work:
as a Control  hatebears, limiting opponent play and resources
as an Aggro  big and fast creatures bringing decent clock
as a Combo  locking opponent or bringing lethal combination of two cards.
All depends on build and pilot of the deck.

Goal

Main goal constructing your Maverick is to cover all excepted metagame with silver bullets along with not destabilize the Core which should guarantee your deck working, and have capability to change strategy for different opponent. The bigger is tournament, the harder to build optimal solution. Each Maverick will be different depends on predicted decks, but they share same Core.

Genesis and history

Maverick was on its beginning, a Vial deck created by M@verick (Luis Viciano) focused on Weathered Wayfarer advantage, few deck lists still can be found from half of 2010 on The Council Decks.To honor his invention, name of the deck remains Maverick after his online nickname.
Interesting note is that did not abandon Vial build even after printing Green Suns Zenith, and made a decent record on BoM7 Legacy Main Event with little tweaked version or their original build.
Second root is old Survival of The Fittest deck (which gets very popular in 2010, thanks to printing of Vengevine), which aim same goal as nowadays Maverick silverbullet for any situation. Survival get ban hammer in December 2010, due to repeatable tutoring. Few months later, after releasing Green Suns Zenith in February 4, 2011, Maverick was rebuild and gain consistency with help on new tutor, last Primer was from April 2011.

Maverick was one of the most popular winning deck (based on TCDecks statistics) since July 2011 to January 2013, when it loses popularity due to overwhelming Deathrite Shaman in every deck and rise of OmniTell (Show and Tell deck with Omniscience), but this does not vanish Maverick from meta until September 2014. Khans of Tarkir mechanics delve for drawing cards blow meta to the end for next almost year (read Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time gap). To pair next prints of problematic creature from commander - True Name-Nemesis overclass any other creature in combat, so it become clear that Maverick need rebuild for next generation of decks. It is a good moment after banning Sensei Divining Top which impact on Miracle decks which runs Terminus which was problematic for each creature-centric deck.

Here it is new Primer, with a lot of analysis and freshness.

Why would you play Maverick

If you like fair creature base deck which can be build under your own preferences and meta calls Maverick is the best shell for You. Its agility and skill to adopt for almost any meta makes non-linear strategy, which create perfect deck in skilled player hands. Second reason is market value, excluding blue stamples along with blue manabase makes it cheaper then most Tier constructions.
Last reason to choose this deck is consistency, thanks to tutoring via Green Suns Zenith makes each silver bullet in deck accessible in each game which can lead to easy win in various meta.

Build

Maverick build changes in time, actually we have three different builds based on color splashes. Each splash brings options for sideboard to handle certain situations.

Silver bullets  package of 1-of cards which can be tutored on certain situations or against defined decks.

Equipment package  Stoneforge Mystic and equips fits very well to heavy creature decks, swords of X and Y, Batterskull and Jitte brings difference effects as a way to gain card advantage and protection against defined decks.

Removal package  Depends on targets and build there many ways to remove opponent creatures from battlefield.

Utility lands  Since Maverick running 4-of Knight of Reliquary which can tutor any land from deck utility lands brings an other way to gain advantage or answer opponent threads.

Total: smoothness cards: 49,
4 GSZ fit to any category since they can be each CMC set 1 to 5, so It's used to smooth build.
7 cards left, mostly as distortion focused on CMC 2 and 3. That's why It's midrange deck.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Just posting this here, feel free to edit as you feel necessary and copy/paste into the primer. I may stop partially through to "save" my progress as I go along

REMOVAL IN MAVERICK:

Maverick is a deck that contains various elements of different types of strategies. There are some aggro elements, some prison elements, and even in some variations of the deck some control elements. Having these traits leads down the path that uses the term that has been popularized when describing decks like this as "midrange". At the heart of Maverick it is a Green and White deck so it has various pieces of removal. White has some of the most flexible options in terms of removal for most types of permanents in the game and this can lead to an incredibly varied differentiation in terms of players decklists due to very different metas.

Below I will outline some of the more commonly played removal spells in the deck

Swords to Plowshares: Not much is needed to be said about this card being the best removal piece in the game. This deck does at times care about the life total of the opponent, but the life gain is far and away better for an opponent than any of the other removal spells drawbacks. This is generally a four of in the main deck. In some of the versions running black for decay it may be trimmed a bit and in the red versions it may also be trimmed, but most of the time it is a 4-of.

Path to Exile: This card has waxed and waned in terms of removal and it often resides in the sideboard rather than the main board because Swords is generally a better spell. In a meta full of creature decks however, especially ones with little to no basic lands this can be a very powerful removal spell. In a meta of Delver it has often been played as a 2 to 3-of in the sideboard because having a pile of removal against the creature light tempo decks that is cheap helps a lot against mana denial.

Abrupt Decay: Ever since it has been printed alongside deathrite shaman, Abrupt Decay has been a mainstay in Green and Black decks. These two printings have shifted many maverick decks from the traditional GW versions to having a black splash for decay. Though it was at its best during the era where miracles (and therefore Counterbalance) reigned, it still warrants some main board slots due to its uncounterability in the tempo match-ups and its sheer flexibility in many others. Often it will be a 1 to 2-of in the main board of the GWB versions and sometimes may reside in the sideboard as an extra copy or two to add in, or often it may replace deisenchant style effects because it is more flexible.

Punishing Fire: Due to Knight of the Reliquary having a powerful land tutoring ability, and the fact that many creatures are smaller in the legacy format, some variants of Maverick run red instead of black as their third color, often to run this slow but powerful engine that can be great in attrition match-ups in conjunction with Grove of the Burnwillows. It is often very powerful in a very fair meta consisting of many creature decks, and it is also great at whittling down planeswalker loyalties. The downside is that it stresses your mana base a bit because of the need to run Grove with it, and that it is almost always a dead card in the combo match-ups. Another downside is the 2 mana cost to cast it in a deck that often runs Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, which often leads the player to put Thalia into the sideboard, or cut her completely which further exacerbates the weaknesses in the combo match-ups.

Sideboard Options for removal

Fatal Push: Since the printing it has been very popular for killing so many creatures efficiently in the format, unfortunately in this deck black is generally just a splash and you don't want to fetch a wastelandable black source early to use this against most of the decks that it is most useful against. This may have a home, but I think generally path is a better supplement than this is out of the board since this is primarily a GW deck.

Disenchant/Naturalize/Krosan Grip: This deck doesn't need this effect in spell form as much with the existence of Qasali Pridemage existing as a man who can be found off of green sun as well as just generally being a good attacker. However there is a surprise factor of these existing that people don't play around these cards as much. K-Grip was much more popular during the Counterbalance and Stoneblade era as excellent ways to answer CB itself and Batterskulls.

Council's Judgement: A bit clunky because of it's mana cost being WW and it costing 4 under a Thalia, but it is a clean way to answer difficult to deal with things like planeswalkers and True Name. It's sheer flexibility makes it always a fine, but not exciting option.

Zealous Persecution: A card that I feel is always worth a slot or two due to it being so good against so many decks. Being able to answer unflipped Delvers, Pyromancer and all of it's tokens, True Names, and half of the Death and Taxes deck and even can give you a fighting chance against Elves, it generally pulls it's weight in a variety of fair match ups. It is also a nice useful card to bring in against various Storm and Charbelcher decks to answer Empty the Warrens and even Dark Confidants or Pyromancers they may bring out of the sideboard. I don't think I've ever had 2 of this card in my board and thought to myself that I wanted less of it.

Seal of Cleansing/Seal of Primordium: Another variant of disenchant. The upside of these cards is that you can preemptively lay them down so you don't have to hold up mana later on, and they can also be dropped in off of Show and Tell's to answer Sneak Attack (if they don't have red mana avaiable), or Omniscience.

Oblivion Ring/Banishing Light: A faux Vindicate effect. It is a flexible but somewhat expensive answer. The upside to this over another clunky yet flexible answer like Council's Judgement is that this card can be dropped off of a show and tell to answer whatever they put in. You opponent can still do things like activate sneak attack or griselbrand in response to the trigger, but hopefully you have some sort of on board presence that either makes those difficult decisions or impossible ones in the case of paying 7 life if you have enough to attack for the win if they draw 7.

Blessed Alliance: A card with many uses. It's main one is to be an edict that can hit otherwise tough to deal with creatures such as Marit Lage or True Name Nemesis. It also can double as an extra mom activaton or knight activation as well, or even simply to gain life in the burn match up as well. The versatility of the card has earned a spot or two in many recent side boards.
EDIT: WILL ADD MORE LATER ON

Last edited by Megadeus; 11-03-2017 at 08:54 PM.

Originally Posted by Richard Cheese

I've been taking shitty brews and tier 2 decks to tournaments and losing with them for years now. Welcome to the club. We meet for cocktails after round 6.

Originally Posted by Stevestamopz

Top quality german restraint there.

If I'm at the point where I'm rage quitting, you can bet your kransky that I'm calling everyone involved a cunt.

8 Tutors
4 Green Sun's Zenith - GSZ brings consistency in every game you will be playing, each GSZ drawn can be any creature needed from Core to Silver Bullet creatures which are answer for present boardstate or even whole strategy or deck, for example GSZ for 2 for Gaddock Teeg against ANT brings mostly instant win in G1. Similar are when you GSZ for Scavenging Ooze vs Graveyard based strategy decks. GSZ can be artifact/enchantment removal, or any other utility creature - like protection against future removal - GSZ for Sylvan Safekeeper. It's value on hand scale with resources. More over it shuffle into library after use, so probability of drawing it grow each turn. GSZ is a reason why this deck exist and contains green creatures toolbox take a look at Silver Bullet Module.

4 Knight of the Reliquary - It loses it's power after printing deathrite shaman, but it's still core creature and should always be 4-of. It's land tutor, and thread. Her stats on battlefield scaling with play length thread, each search pump her attack/defense. All those doesn't show her power - the most played scenario is limiting opponent resources by searching Wasteland (and ghost quarter), which lead to opponent mana screw. Most times it will be the biggest thread on table. Additional utility lands toolbox can answer many hard situation - more described in Utility Lands Module.

4 Tax Creature:
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Thalia is the reason why Maverick has so many success in Legacy, it's perfect asymmetric taxing effect against 85% of the field. Since Maverick running very soft number of spells compared to other decks it's one-side Sphere of Resistance. Adding good ability which is first strike creates perfect fit into core deck. Even with Punishing Fire build, Thalia will have it's place on SB. Since those are excluding cards and shouldn't be played together.

Minimum is 22 lands which gives mana from start including Dryad Arbor, which should have 18 colored mana sources (counting fetchlands, basics, arbor, dual lands and ulity lands which gives colored mana).
Maverick is mana hungry deck, which get stronger along with more resources. It also can survive on very little mana from lands and cover it by mana dorks, utility creatures and utility lands like Gaea's Cradle.

Maximum is 24 lands which gives mana from start, including Dryad Arbor. Each land which doesn't give mana from start - shouldn't be counted as manabase. 24 lands should be in Punishing Fire build, which require more mana then other splashes, 3-4 Grove of the Burnwillows should be included.

Other free slots should be distributed on silver bullets, CQ/CA cards, Equipments package and creature protection.

Punishing Fire was first adopted in Maverick decks at the end of 2011, primarily as a way of gaining an edge in the Maverick mirror. It turns out that the Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillows combination slots very naturally into a GWx Maverick shell for several reasons:

Knight of the Reliquary allows you to tutor for Grove of the Burnwillows. With a Punishing Fire in your graveyard, your Knight essentially can tutor for a burn spell. This tutorability means you do not have to play a full set of Grove of the Burnwillows, which can be sub-optimal as a strictly mana producing land.

Swords to Plowshares allows you to trigger your Punishing Fires without needing Grove of the Burnwillows. Punishing Fire will trigger at any instance of your opponent gaining life. Grove is the easiest way of causing this to happen, but any incidental lifegain by your opponent triggers your Punishing Fires. Like the interaction above with Knight of the Reliquary, this one allows for greater flexibility in abusing the card Punishing Fire, which a Naya-colored deck is uniquely situated to do due to its staple cards.

Punishing Fire adds an axis of interaction to the deck that isn't creature-based. Maverick traditionally plays very much into the board, leaving it vulnerable to sweeper effects, particularly against control decks. Punishing Fire allows a Maverick strategy to pressure the opponent's life total or Planeswalkers without committing resources to the board. Its recoverability means even with no cards in hand you are able to interact, and it also requires a different kind of answer from the opposing deck than your creatures do.

A Red splash in Maverick primarily for Punishing Fire comes with several other important implications:

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, a Maverick staple, becomes more disruptive to your own gameplan since the Punishing Grove engine is very mana-intensive. Thalia is still a strong card in many matchups and can have a place in the 75, but without this card in your maindeck you will have worse combo matchups in game 1. There are few matchups where you want both Punishing Fire and Thalia in your deck, so you can decide which one to play main and easily switch to the other after sideboarding. Alternately, both can be played maindeck to have the widest range of game 1 matchup quality.

A Red splash and another color splash (Black or Blue) in the same Maverick deck are not mutually exclusive. A 3.5-color Punishing Maverick deck is possible due to the fact that the deck is heavily GW, with numerous mana creatures facilitating color splashes. Such a version undeniably has a shakier manabase than a GWr version, but can incorporate most strengths of both color splashes.

Strategically, The difference between a Maverick deck with Punishing Fire and one without comes down to improved midrange and control matchups, at the cost of worse combo matchups. It is important to note that Punishing Maverick does not necessarily have bad combo matchups, and post-board still has access to a lot of the same tools as other Maverick variants.

Its also noteworthy that Punishing Fire is rarely a dead card in game 1 since it can target the opponent. Furthermore, most fair decks struggle to interact with the Punishing Grove combination without access to their sideboard, so having this engine in your maindeck should greatly improve your game 1 MW% against fair decks.

Ultimately, deciding which Maverick deck to play comes down to your expected meta, playstyle, or preference.

CreaturesBloodbraid Elf - While arguably the most powerful GR creature in Legacy, its poor interaction with Green Sun's Zenith and the situational nature of many of Maverick's cards make it ill-suited to the deck. See Huntmaster of the Fells for an alternative.Granger Guildmage - Packs two useful abilities against creature-based decks.Huntmaster of the Fells - Top-end value creature.Kavu Predator - Trampling threat that synergizes with Grove of the Burnwillows and Swords to Plowshares.Scab-Clan Berserker - Powerful threat against spell-based decks, but less efficient than the CMC2 White hatebears commonly found in Maverick sideboards.Vithian Renegades - Compare to Reclamation Sage, better body but less versatile effect.

Disenchant EffectsAncient Grudge - Premium artifact removal, good vs Death & Taxes, Stoneblade, and Stompy decks, not to mention fringier artifact-based decks like Affinity and Tezzerator.Destructive Revelry - An elegant Naturalize with a built-in Shock.Wear / Tear - More flexible than Ancient Grudge but less powerful. The fuse ability can come up against decks like Aggro Loam, Death & Taxes, Stoneblade, Stompy, Shardless BUG, and other Maverick decks.Hull Breach - Compare to Wear / Tear. Similar effect but is a Sorcery, will always cost GR to cast.

PlaneswalkersAjani Vengeant - +1 ability enables a wide range of interactions, but both that and the -2 can line up poorly against threats in various game states.Arlinn Kord - +1 ability is particularly strong with Knight of the Reliquary. Notably can function as a win condition that doesn't require the combat step.Chandra, Pyromaster - +1 ability is very strong against small creatures, and also gives evasion in board stalls via the Falter effect. The 0 ability generates card advantage in grindy matchups.Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Also can function as a win condition that doesn't require the combat step. Her +1's inability to target opposing Planeswalkers is somewhat problematic.Domri Rade - Punishing Maverick decks don't have a very high creature count (~20-23), so the +1 ability is worse than it appears, but still enables some library manipulation in conjunction with the many shuffle effects in Maverick. -2 ability has interesting implications with Mother of Runes and Exalted, but generally creatures in Maverick are small outside of Knight of the Reliquary.Xenagos, the Reveler - Hasty 2/2 tokens are deceptively powerful, as is the +1 Gaea's Cradle ability, but vulnerable due to his low loyalty. Compare with Garruk Relentless.

Sweepers
Mass removal has applications against many strategies such as Death & Taxes, Delver, Elves, and Empty the Warrens, but be wary that many Red sweeper effects can cause significant damage to your own deck. Also note that there is no efficient Red sweeper that destroys True-Name Nemesis. A new printing to look out for is a cheap Red sweeper that has "damage caused by [Cardname] can't be prevented", as that would destroy the Merfolk Rouge by negating its Protection.Blazing Volley - Compare with Electrickery.Electrickery - Particularly strong against Young Pyromancer, and has the utility of being an Instant.Fiery Justice - Cumbersome but powerful, capable of killing several creatures with different toughness levels. Can also be a single spot removal spell for large creatures like Gurmag Angler, Tarmogoyf, and Reality Smasher, or a Planeswalker with <6 loyalty.Pyroclasm - The most efficient Red sweeper available overall.Sudden Demise - Unique effect that can be one-sided in many situations.

Punishing Maverick Manabase Construction

Red Dual Lands
Punishing Maverick decks typically only splash a few Red spells. While Red-producing mana creatures such as Birds of Paradise can be played, its important to have redundant and reliable Red mana sources in the form of Taiga and Plateau. 2 Red mana sources are required to use the Punishing Fire engine effectively with 5+ mana available; therefore, at least 2 Red dual lands are required. A 3rd Red dual land provides insulation against Wastelands/Hymn to Tourach etc. and is recommended. 3 is the most commonly played number.

Grove of the Burnwillows
As discussed above, one of the advantages of Punishing Maverick as a Punishing Fire midrange deck is it doesn't need to play a set of Grove of the Burnwillows, which can be sub-optimal as a strictly mana producing land. 3 is the most commonly played number.

Wasteland
Since it requires a certain number of Groves, Punishing Maverick has less space for utility lands like Wasteland than other Maverick decks. As a result, 3 is the most commonly played number. 3 Wastelands are enough to cripple the opponent in many situations, and they can be reliably found with Knight. Due to the mana-hungry nature of the Punishing Fire engine, Punishing Maverick also often wishes to keep lands in play.

Utility Lands
There are few utility lands with activated abilities requiring Red mana to use that are worth considering in Maverick. Foremost among these are the similar Kessig Wolf Run and Skarrg, the Rage Pits. Comparing these cards, Wolf Run provides a mana sink and can turn any creature into a large threat, but the efficiency and point of toughness granted by Skarrg are not to be overlooked. Note that Trample damage is dealt through Protection effects, including True-Name Nemesis.

Deck Comparisons
Its pertinent to compare Punishing Maverick with other fair, midrange Punishing Fire strategies, and identify the advantages Punishing Maverick has over them.

Punishing Jund
This undeniably powerful deck is the polar opposite of Maverick in many ways, being built around high card quality and raw card advantage rather than synergy and card selection. There was a general perception that Punishing Jund made Punishing Maverick obsolete, which is incorrect, particularly following the banning of Deathrite Shaman in mid-2018. Notable advantages of Punishing Maverick over Punishing Jund:

Acceleration: Punishing Maverick has access to high-quality mana acceleration, making it faster and less susceptible to mana denial and color-fixing problems.

Consistency: Green Sun's Zenith grants Punishing Maverick a huge edge in consistency, allowing moderation between mana screw and mana flood, and the ability to select the best creature for a given matchup or board state.

White VS Black: Punishing Maverick has access to powerful White permanent-based hate cards like Thalia, Gaddock Teeg, and Karakas, which Jund really has no analog to. This results in combo matchups playing out differently between the two decks.

Better Punishing Fire Deck: Punishing Maverick can abuse the card Punishing Fire more efficiently and reliably due to also playing Knight of the Reliquary and Swords to Plowshares, as discussed above. Jund has to play more Groves in order to draw them naturally, and as an R/G land Grove conflicts with the high density of BB spells (Hymn to Tourach, Liliana of the Veil) in the Jund deck.

4C Aggro Loam
Punishing Maverick has become compared with or confused for 4C Aggro Loam, an archetype that has become much more visible since GP Lille in the middle of 2015. The two decks share many cards, and again there is a false perception that Aggro Loam has made Punishing Maverick obsolete. Notable advantages of Punishing Maverick over Aggro Loam:

Consistency: The full set of Green Sun's Zenith grants Punishing Maverick an edge in consistency, and Maverick is also less reliant on specific cards to function optimally.

Efficiency: Punishing Maverick is more efficient as it isn't encumbered by the deckbuilding restrictions of Chalice of the Void and plays numerous 1CMC spells. Aggro Loam plays loads of 2CMC spells and as a result can struggle to curve out, use all its mana, and cast multiple spells in a turn. These tempo losses can be exploited by other more efficient Legacy decks.

Threat-Density: Aggro Loam has a strong dichotomy between setup (Lands, Mox Diamond) and payoff cards (Knight of the Reliquary, Liliana of the Veil). While Aggro Loam's best draws are more powerful than Punishing Maverick's, on average Punishing Maverick is more threat-dense and has higher card and topdeck quality.

Other Resources

Punishing Maverick Decklists
Click the link above to see a compilation of Punishing Maverick decklists that have been successful at large tournaments over the years, and which showcase the many ways you can build a Punishing Maverick deck.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Silver bullet cards

Power of Maverick is having answer vs any situation met while playing against today meta. Every time when you have Green Sun's Zenith it's like having Demonic Tutor for G. This mean good Maverick build have toolbox to fight against meta.

There will be the list of Silver Bullets (1-of green creature for specify situation common in today meta):

Knight of the Reliquary - biggest badass on the battlefield, which can tutor any land.

Must have:

Qasali Pridemage - Artifact and Enchantment destroyer attached to Watch Wolf counting exalted trigger. It's only drawback is type - cat wizard, which mean it can't be cast of out Cavern easily. Every Maverick deck should have at least 1 in MD (2 and 3 was also common in Blade decks domination). Remember that it can be needled or revokered so keep in mind additional artifact / enchantment removal in SB. The most common friend will be spells like Abrupt Decay, Ancient Grudge or Reclamation Sage (if legs are needed).

Scryb Ranger - Many people underestimate it's power - not running it is mistake. Let write what it does: Flash (can be nasty surprise on instant), Flying with Blue Protection - blocks every Delver, Clique or Strix, and can: bring mana (from untapped creature like dryad arbor or shaman/etc), protect your unbasics vs opponent wastelands and bring additional activation from Knight. It also bring constant stream of Clues from Tireless Tracker trigger. Many times you need of of those things and then you GSZ for Scryb Ranger. It's also one of the best equip carrier (flash and flying).

Gaddock Teeg - Storm killer, this little dude close up storm matchup on it's own. It stops also most Walkers, FoWs and other expensive spells. Remember that it blocks Chalice of the Void (X in costs). To win G1 against storm you need 1 in your MD. It also protects your dudes vs Terminus so keep one more in SB if your meta have any UW Control.

Scavenging Ooze - before Deathrite Shaman was printed it was the cheapest GY hate answer with legs. Now it's still very good since it can block opponent Shamans, along with fast growth it size if have enough food. Very good vs opponent recursion like snapcasters. It also shrink goyfs and fight nice decks dependent on graveyard - lands, reanimator or dredge. It also very good against burn since it will have food from your burned creature - hot snacks !

Most common:

Renegade Railler - Maverick was running Eternal Witness not so long ago (before DRS), Railler is just Witness on steroids since it put in to play when Revolt is met. Only downside is that it can't bring back removal, but it has much better body - 3/2. The most common target for Railler is double wasteland turn which destroys most midrange decks. CMC <= 2 is enough to bring most important things - Jitte, Thalia, Shaman or another Wasteland.

Tireless Tracker - It is many times omitted creature, but it gives hugh advantage almost every time you have land in hands. It growth fast and have build in CA for each land fall. If you have empty hand (only lands in hand) it's better target then Knight of the Reliquary. Only drawback is little body (bolt range) before you eat 2 Clues. It's one of the best CA in this deck. Always try to cast it before your land drop. It's not worth 1-for-1 card.

Ramunap Excavator - Crucible Man, or Crucible with legs. Maverick runs (specially punishing version) one life from the loam to cycle wasteland or bring back Grove of the Burnwillows, now you don't need to dig with Sylvan Library - you can Zenith your Loam. It ends game very fast if opponent didn't answer it. Best to cast it before you cast your land drop to always gain advantage from it. It is the reason to run utility lands like Horizon Canopy (1 extra draw for 1 mana and land drop each turn), Ghost Quarter - "I see you running 2 basics to not be screwed by wastelands... not for long"

Sylvan Safekeeper - GSZ=1 instant shroud for target creature YOUR control. It's best protection in mid-late game for your creatures. Since you can bring back lands by Ramunap or Railler it's eacy to lock all removal. It also final push for Knight of the Reliquary if you need to race. Will be more about that little Human in protection section.

Reclamation Sage - brother of Pridemage - disenchant with legs as enter to the battlefield trigger, good to answer Revokers, mostly used in SB.

Finishers - when you really need to end game, it's not so important to run any of them:

Huntmaster of the Fells - used sometimes in Punishing Fire version. Good split body with option to be transformed with bigger body and ping for 2. Depends how long will survive

Thrun, the Last Troll - Hexproof with Regeneration, and uncounterable - works quite nice to deal with heavy controls, good 4/4 body enough to end game fast before they find deluge.

Titania, Protector of Argoth - always a CA - 2 for 1, and good stream of 5/3 creatures. If you can Zenith for her with Karakas it's mostly game ending creature. Drawbacks - doesn't work well with opponent Karakas, or active Shaman.

Sigarda Host of Herons - build hexproof, flying, big body - everything what is needed to end game fast. It also bring protection against Edict effects, which is hugh. It only can be killed by spells: Terminus or Deluge. Drawback - ugly loses to Strix when she stands and waits. Probably the most common finisher.

Less common finishers:

The Gitrog Monster - Works only with fetchlands (like a Titania) but it doesn't bring land from GY, so it's worst IMO, but it's bolt proof and push/decay proof. So it can make difference. I'm not a fan of that card in Maverick, but it can cycle a lot of lands with Sylvan Safekeeper. Massive body helps in combat.

Centaur Vinecrasher - Fixed Terravore with option to recursion option for double green: GG. Important it can be really big and have trample - biggest drawback - it's not Knight of the Reliquary aka. Magus of Crop Rotation so it can't search lands, Centaur is good only for attacking - can be good in mirror to fight opponent Knights.

Courser of Kruphix - Mostly burn killer, enough to survive bolt and gives quite a lot of life, with additional CQ with land filtering. I'm not a big fan of it, be it proven it's value when meta was more U/R or Burn oriented.

Leovold, Emissary of Trest - met only in little blue splash. It's very good card vs heavy removal decks like Czech Pile, or BUG Control. Great when pair with Karakas - anyway it will die first for sure, good with Karakas.

Timbermare - Walker killer with an option for 3G - 5/5, Haste and taps all other creature when Enter to battlefield, works great with Scryb Ranger (KotR untap ? -> lethal). It has echo which sometimes worth paid (if you can). Good body protects from bolts. Affordable after opponent Jace, even if they fateseal.

- Batterskull is very good as finisher never ending creature, if you have enough lands it's easy to bounce in response to removal which makes Batterskull very hard to deal. It also give edge in matchups where your life matters - like Burn or Eldrazi. Remember that Germ is black.

- Sword of Light and Shadow is mostly against BUG and D&T and Miracles decks. BUG guarantee trigger to pick up dead creature to gain advantage. This sword also have the best protections against removal. Vs D&T it also mean almost unblockable (only Phyrexian Revoker).

Manriki-Gusari - anti-equipment can be useful as additional answer if your meta is equipement heavy.

Basilisk Collar - cheaper batterskull, also used on Granger Guildmage. Can work in heavy aggro meta filled with Burn and Eldrazi, but aren't too useful outside those matchups.

Lightning Greaves - more cute then useful - every time you want to attach it to Knight - every time opponent will have removal - if not - why use greaves - only for haste ?

Depends on your meta you need to choose how big your Equips package would be. If your meta is full of artifact removal (Kolaghan's Command, Abrade, Ancient Grudge etc) - mostly Czech Piles, 4-colors controls, make your package not too big to have option to side it out. Remember that Equips are one of the ways to gain card advantage, if you cut them - you need something other which will be enough to win the game.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Utility Lands

Maverick running 4 "Magus of Crop Rotation" => Knight of the Reliquary which can tutor any land directly from library. Most time your pick will be Wasteland to cut of opponent resources, but not always. Here are useful lands to pick.

Most Common lands not mention in Core:

Karakas - Must have answer vs any legendary creature, enough to bounce Show and Telled Emrakul, or any other problematic Legend. Important note - it can bounce every attacking Gideon !

Cavern of Souls - not so common as before SDT ban but still very useful in Tempo matchup to resolve Knight of Reliquary.

It allows you to seal a game that's true, but it also allows to get back from behind by casting a sofi, equiping it AND getting a hit in (meaning +2 cards if you shock a creature).

Or it can allow you to equip a batterskull that was dead on your board for extra racing options.

Or it can allow you to gsz for 2 + have spare mana to eat stuff off ooze even through drs.

Maverick is a very mana hungry deck so the extra mana is rarely useless.

Originally Posted by ETI1

I think the biggest advantage that cradle has is how explosive it can be in any stage of the game after the 1st turn. My favorite lines are playing a 1 drop turn 1 into another 1 drop + cradle + 2 or 3 drop on turn two. Or just being able to use knight to generate a ton of mana to both cast and equip equipment.

Originally Posted by Fatal

Partly agree it can be win more, but:
- it also provide edge over good players when 1 vs 2 mana mean cast and equip SOFI which gives you a Victory
- it provide option when you have Knight and making geddon via wastelands with Scryb Ranger, then you left 1 land and can't cast spells while opponent cast some blocker vs which you don't have answer (for example Strix or TNN), without Cradle you can't rebuild / answer this defending thread.

On the other side:
Cradle isn't good vs heavy tempo oriented meta (RUG/BUG/Grixis specially with stifles) with a lot of removal. It will be mostly a dead card since your board presence will mean -> you already win.

Horizon Canopy - Save from flood, can be used by cycle land to draw when you need it, works great with Ramunap Excavator

Ghost Quarter - 5th wasteland vs most tempo decks, works also very nice with Ramunap Excavator - it's easy to blow up 1-2 basics with it and basically cut of any opponents' resources for good

Maze of Ith - much less popular then it was before True Name Nemesis print. Works as pseudo-vigilance and defending against opponent attacks. Mostly not worth in today meta.

Dark Depths and Thespian's Stage - both lands should be used as a pair. It's debatable asset. It makes your manabase cluncky or your thread density lower, but It also very good against nonwhite decks. Running this combo gives option to Knight to end game quite fast - 3 turns, this mean that 7/7 Knight if not blocked will have same speed. Important difference: not blocked. Marit Lage flies over TNN, and don't die to Strix.

Less common:

Kessig Wolf Run - good in late game (every creature is a big thread), and to trample over True-Name Nemesis.

Tower of the Magistrate - good answer to equipements, can easy de-equip any creature or kill germ, use only in heavy equip meta.

Sejiri Steppe - bad card shouldn't be used it won't save your Knight of Reliquary since most deck will kill it right away, even if he survive a turn he will be killed in the moment when he will be tapped.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Card Advantage and Card Quality

Maverick is a Midrange Deck, this mean it have to out draw opponent with value - card quality or with number of threads - card advantage. To achieve it we need to draw more cards then opponent or have more cards 2-for-1 then opponent, to have more threads then even a control have removal spells.

Since we focused on creatures most CA will came from creatures. Main source of card advantage are equipments (from equips package) which makes every little creature very effective. Direct drawing cards, and killing opponent creatures comes from Sword of Fire and Ice trigger or from Umezawa's Jitte .

The other card advantages comes from direct 2 for 1 cards:

Tireless Tracker with land - even if opponent kill it right after resolve you will get a clue which mean - draw a card.

The best of those creatures are that, if opponent doesn't answer right away they can give much more then 2 for 1 cards.

Last one is Renegade Railler which also almost always bring 2 for 1, since he return permanent right in to battlefield.

As card selection (and card advantage) we use Sylvan Library which is one of the best 2 CMC enchantments. Which dodge removal, and can give possibility to draw extra cards for 4 life each. Remember it's extra draw which means it doesn't work under Leovold, Emissary of Trest - even card selection.

That's direct card advantage from cards, but the most common way to gain advantage is aggressive attack opponent mana base (wastelands, and Thalia taxing) which gives virtual advantage - when they don't have resources they can't cast spells for enough time to end game. Second common way is to play as aggro deck to push opponent life total and force him to chump block.

This is a lot of removal spells which is enough to full stabilize and outdraw us. All of them are cheap and effective (kill also Knight of the Reliquary). This mean additional Mother of Runes doesn't change too much it will just die like each other creature, and they won't end the stream of removal. This thoughts lead to change Maverick philosophy against control decks, we must outdraw them with CA, or seal them with repeatable instant protection:Sylvan Safekeeper (MD)Steely Resolve (on SB) - each important creature is an Human.

A lot of people won't agree with me - but try this harder build, it's worth.

Mother of Runes is really good in mirror, or in any other non-combo (won't stop tempo only save already resolved hatebear), non-tempo (doesn't do too much against Delver), non-control matchup(described upper) - I hardly cut her, but we can deal without her with any other decks - sure it's easier G1 for example vs Death & Taxes when we land Mom, but we can deal with them without her, specially after SB.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Nice work guys! This is great.

Quick thought: in the first post, you might want to offer a slightly clearer definition of Dark Maverick. "GWb list which gives access to discard and cheap uncounterable or mass removal" sounds a lot like standard Junk Maverick lists, while I think of Dark Maverick as running Bob. Of course, I could be wrong about that.

*Edit: I see that further down you've listed the core of Dark Maverick, which doesn't include Bob. Have I just been wrong about classifying Dark Maverick?*

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Originally Posted by Stuart

Nice work guys! This is great.

Quick thought: in the first post, you might want to offer a slightly clearer definition of Dark Maverick. "GWb list which gives access to discard and cheap uncounterable or mass removal" sounds a lot like standard Junk Maverick lists, while I think of Dark Maverick as running Bob. Of course, I could be wrong about that.

*Edit: I see that further down you've listed the core of Dark Maverick, which doesn't include Bob. Have I just been wrong about classifying Dark Maverick?*

I have very rarely seen Dark Confidant included in Maverick lists splashing black [edit: like stated by later posters this seems to have been the historic reason though] . I interpret the "dark" in Dark Maverick as only being related to playing a few black cards, just like in the description above. For a while I considered if it could have something to do with Dark Depths but I don't think so.

Last edited by pettdan; 11-14-2017 at 01:29 PM.

Currently playing/brewing: Grixis Painter, all Maverick versions, Planeswalker Nic Fit, Cloudpost Fit, MOST and then some.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Originally Posted by pettdan

I have very rarely seen Dark Confidant included in Maverick lists splashing black. I interpret the "dark" in Dark Maverick as only being related to playing a few black cards, just like in the description above. For a while I considered if it could have something to do with Dark Depths but I don't think so.

Na. I don't run Bob nor Depths in the 75. The Black is meant for D-rites and sb tech like Engineered Plague, Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy, Zealous Persecution, etc.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Originally Posted by Stuart

Nice work guys! This is great.

Quick thought: in the first post, you might want to offer a slightly clearer definition of Dark Maverick. "GWb list which gives access to discard and cheap uncounterable or mass removal" sounds a lot like standard Junk Maverick lists, while I think of Dark Maverick as running Bob. Of course, I could be wrong about that.

*Edit: I see that further down you've listed the core of Dark Maverick, which doesn't include Bob. Have I just been wrong about classifying Dark Maverick?*

You are right. Dark Maverick was originally the inclusion of Dark Confidant and Dark Depths in the maindeck. It also ran way deeper in black with the usual Decay maindeck. It's about as different as Punishing Maverick (4-8 cards) and thus should be specified.

People can use the name however they want but just using depths and drs does not make the deck Dark Maverick. It's simply maverick with a black splash.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Hi guys! Returning maverick player here! Lasttime i played was in 2012. Upon checking lists in mtgtop8.com i can see some decklists are not using gaeas cradle. But from what i can remember i have 1 gaeas cradle in my decklist in the past. Is gaeas cradle still needed in the current maverick list. I would really like some insights before i invest in a card that really spiked up in price :( would play competitively after i get all the pieces needed for the deck. Thank you in advance guys!

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Originally Posted by Drkmaverick

Hi guys! Returning maverick player here! Lasttime i played was in 2012. Upon checking lists in mtgtop8.com i can see some decklists are not using gaeas cradle. But from what i can remember i have 1 gaeas cradle in my decklist in the past. Is gaeas cradle still needed in the current maverick list. I would really like some insights before i invest in a card that really spiked up in price :( would play competitively after i get all the pieces needed for the deck. Thank you in advance guys!

It depends on build, Gaea's Cradle provide mana boost depends on situation. If your build running CMC = 5 Thread you need it for sure, if not - it depends on equipment package (I recommend it if you are running Batterskull). Running Gaea's Cradle is risky in heavy removal meta when it will doesn't add any mana to your mana pool.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Originally Posted by Fatal

It depends on build, Gaea's Cradle provide mana boost depends on situation. If your build running CMC = 5 Thread you need it for sure, if not - it depends on equipment package (I recommend it if you are running Batterskull). Running Gaea's Cradle is risky in heavy removal meta when it will doesn't add any mana to your mana pool.

Price of Gaea's Cradle are because of Elves which runs 4-of it.

I only run 3 drops 4 reliquary , ramunap and sanctum prelate in sideboard. But do you recommend putting some bigncreatures? Thank you your guide is reallyreally helpful!

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

I only run 3 drops 4 reliquary , ramunap and sanctum prelate in sideboard. But do you recommend putting some bigncreatures? Thank you your guide is reallyreally helpful!

Certainly don't need to. I always found Gaea's Cradle allowed me to be a bit more aggressive with Wasteland. You can go to a lower land count and still retain usable mana.
Also helps with playing/equipping equipment and 4-mana green sun's zeniths.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Originally Posted by haganbmj

Certainly don't need to. I always found Gaea's Cradle allowed me to be a bit more aggressive with Wasteland. You can go to a lower land count and still retain usable mana.
Also helps with playing/equipping equipment and 4-mana green sun's zeniths.

Re: [Primer] Maverick 2.0 - GW/x

Originally Posted by haganbmj

Certainly don't need to. I always found Gaea's Cradle allowed me to be a bit more aggressive with Wasteland. You can go to a lower land count and still retain usable mana.
Also helps with playing/equipping equipment and 4-mana green sun's zeniths.

I guess i need cradle's haha. I just thought playing maze of ith or extra fetch lands/duals maintains more consistency for maverick. Don't you think cradles is a win more card for maverick? Coz if you can produce alot of mana with cradle that means you have enough board presence to win you the game even without the cradle.